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PUSHY IIB (PS)
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Developer: R. Fred Williams.
Released: October 1998. Genre: Puzzle. Availability: OPM/Euro Demos #37, #42, #87, #108. Posted 21st December 2021. By Tom Clare © 2021 |
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One of the first Net Yaroze games I had the pleasure of playing, Pushy IIb was an absolute delight of a puzzler. It’s a Sokoban-style block-pusher, a puzzle sub-genre especially popular in Japan during the eighties. However, unless you were up on your NEC imports during the period, Pushy IIb might well have served as your first helping of such an experience, certainly on a home console.
Developed by industry veteran R Fred Williams, several elements helped make Pushy II a memorable experience. Gawd-awful, brain-melting sound effects for one, but for this, it can be forgiven. The game wears its simple, sumptuous graphics with unapologetic pride, loud ‘n’ proud. A throwback to the kind of bright, juicy primary colours the Amiga used to regale us with. Lovely, clean layouts are complimented by simple but effective animations. It doesn’t pull up trees in the technical stakes, but its aesthetic is thoroughly lovely.
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Colourful, tidy layouts and names for passwords lend Pushy II a distinctive appearance
I mentioned Amiga, though it’s perhaps more accurate to say it evokes comparisons with an Acorn Computers game, because that’s exactly where the original Pushy started, in 1995. As the name somewhat directly addresses, Pushy II is its successor. The player controls a purple blob who pushes blocks around a top-down, static-screen puzzle space, with the aim being to position all movable items on designated ‘X’ spaces. The catch is, blocks must be manoeuvred so that they never end up trapped against walls, lodged in corners or impede each other from moving. The inability to pull them means careful planning is a necessity, as you’ll regularly find a single misstep will result in a restart.
It’s easy to grasp and though the first few levels are diverting enough, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the scope for a truly involving puzzler might be beyond it. Happily, Pushy II gets better and more absorbing, as it gets trickier. Tighter and more complicated layouts as well as some fiendish, marble-like blocks that stop only when they reach a wall, transform a neat tech demo into an all-consuming cerebral workout.
It’s easy to grasp and though the first few levels are diverting enough, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the scope for a truly involving puzzler might be beyond it. Happily, Pushy II gets better and more absorbing, as it gets trickier. Tighter and more complicated layouts as well as some fiendish, marble-like blocks that stop only when they reach a wall, transform a neat tech demo into an all-consuming cerebral workout.
PIXEL INFO: PUSHY IIB
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> Pushy II wasn’t limited to life on the PlayStation: as well as appearing on Acorn Computers around the same time, it also received a Game Boy Advance port by creator Richard Fred Williams in 2004.
> It was also remade in 2011, featuring enhanced, higher-resolution visuals but design faithful to the original versions.
> The level ‘Boris’ is really tough. R. Fred Williams stated in a forum post that he received emails for years after the game's release, asking for solutions to the level.
> The website displayed on the boot screen remains running to this day, a monument to another time. It includes 'QBuild', a tool for aficionados to develop levels for the Acorn version of Quake.
> It was also remade in 2011, featuring enhanced, higher-resolution visuals but design faithful to the original versions.
> The level ‘Boris’ is really tough. R. Fred Williams stated in a forum post that he received emails for years after the game's release, asking for solutions to the level.
> The website displayed on the boot screen remains running to this day, a monument to another time. It includes 'QBuild', a tool for aficionados to develop levels for the Acorn version of Quake.
Pushy II delivered something else we weren’t accustomed to from Net Yaroze titles: genuine longevity. In a marvellous touch, each level is named (be it Sandra, David, Heidi and so on) and these monikers act as a password, allowing you to resume from the level you’ve reached. Considering Net Yaroze games had to be loaded into the PlayStation’s RAM, it’s impressive the number of levels that have been crammed in here: more than forty. It just keeps going and going. All these years later, there’s still something really cool about a seemingly innocuous homebrew game on a demo disc delivering a degree of lifespan that outpaces a lot of retail releases.
Granted, the bizarre sound effects seem almost deliberately sadistic for their repetition and the sheer agony each one imparts on your ears, but the absence of music is no great loss for a game you can enjoy happily on mute. Arguably, the lack of quality sound is the only area in which the game appears deficient, next to retail-release puzzlers.
Granted, the bizarre sound effects seem almost deliberately sadistic for their repetition and the sheer agony each one imparts on your ears, but the absence of music is no great loss for a game you can enjoy happily on mute. Arguably, the lack of quality sound is the only area in which the game appears deficient, next to retail-release puzzlers.
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As the levels tick by, the layouts become more complicated: trial-and-error is a big part of figuring out the solutions
‘Gameplay is king’, as we were so often reminded in the gaming publications of the nineties. They were absolutely right and there are few finer examples of this than Pushy II. Let’s face it, the PlayStation wasn’t short of great puzzle games, but few delivered the same absorbing, ‘play and think at your own pace’ approach and long-term outlook. As the levels roll by, it becomes a mesmeric experience, seeing you beavering away for hours in a desperate attempt to crack its fiendish teasers. Maybe one day I’ll complete it, maybe not. Either way, there’s no question it still has a fair bit more mileage to offer. Puzzle fans will be in their element with this.
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VERDICT
"...the PlayStation wasn’t short of great puzzle games, but few delivered the same absorbing, ‘play and think at your own pace’ approach and long-term outlook. But for the audio side, Pushy IIb easily rivals the retail releases of the time" OVERALL: 8/10 |